Places to Grow

I just read this scary story in this week's Now Magazine. For anyone who goes driving around outside of the GTA, you have surely noticed over the last number of years the epidemic of deforestation and consumption of arable land to construct obscenely large houses on sprawling properties. The economic weight of the practice is killing taxpayers, as we are the ones who foot the bill for the wealthy, tax-evading parasites' infrastructure -- you know -- when there was a forest or a farm, we didn't really need to pay for the water supply out there -- or the sewage or the hydro or the roads. The Ontario Government just released their Places to Grow infrastructure plan -- and they will no longer provide any money for infrastructure in areas set aside for greenbelt protection. Great! Smart! But there's one problem, that Wayne Roberts of Now points out -- the planners forgot about food. Food should be considered part of our infrastructure. Yet, the Government gives no protection and doesn't encourage the use of arable land for the production of food. It's a scary story, when you think that we're heavily dependent on imports for most of our food.